Dr Watson Works Off Duty
by icanhasallthebenedicts
Summary: Sherlock's caught the flu and John looks after him for the day. M/M Johnlock One shot. Fluffy fic.


John woke up on a Saturday morning. He was surprised that he was allowed to wake up on his own accord and not due to Sherlock blowing something up in the kitchen or shooting bullets into the wall. He was relieved though, he felt well rested for once. John stayed in bed and enjoyed the warmth of his sheets for a moment longer before getting up, sliding his feet into his slippers and putting his dressing gown over his pyjamas. John made his way to the living room while rubbing his eyes with one hand. He looked around and realised Sherlock was no where to be seen and the area was as he had left it last night.

This provoked curiosity in John as if Sherlock went anywhere he would usually drag John with him, no matter what time of day. John went into the kitchen and put the kettle on and went on a search for Sherlock. He knocked on Sherlock's door. There was no answer. John was about to go back to the kitchen when a soft groan came from Sherlock's bedroom. John's eyebrows rose in confusion but he took this as a sign to enter.

He slowly opened the door and peered into the room. There were clothes strewn across the floor, beakers covering every available surface and Sherlock was wrapped in a blanket with his back to the door. John stood awkwardly by the door and asked, "Sherlock, are you ok?"

Sherlock slowly rolled over so he was facing John and sombrely shook his head. John observed Sherlock. Sherlock's eyes were red, bulging and watery, his nose was red and had slight irritation by the nostrils which meant he had a runny nose, and he was shivering slightly. John was able to conclude that Sherlock had the flu; a normal cold could never keep Sherlock Holmes down.

John sighed and sat on the edge of Sherlock's bed. Sherlock looked wearily at John. John put his hand on Sherlock's forehead, Sherlock definitely had a fever. John sighed again and asked, "Have you taken anything for it?"

Sherlock sniffed and rubbed his nose with his hand and shook his head again. John looked at Sherlock and was surprised that he was sad to see Sherlock ill. For all the time that he had known Sherlock he had almost never been ill. John pouted and said, "I'll go down to the pharmacy and get you some medicine okay?"

Sherlock whined and buried his face into the pillow. "Don't act like a child," said John as he rolled his eyes.

John got up and said, "I'm going to go have a shower and then I'll get you the medicine okay?"

Sherlock responded with a muffled cough as his face was still pressed against the pillow.

John entered the bathroom, stripped himself of his clothes and hopped into the shower. He turned the hot water on but stood where the water could not hit him as it always took a while to heat up. Once he saw that steam was rising from the water he adjusted the temperature with the cold water and once it was bearable he stepped into the falling stream of water. The warm water running down his body was a relief as he was freezing whilst waiting for the water to heat up. Once his body was wet and warm he lathered shampoo into his hair and rinsed it out and then scrubbed his body with soap and let the suds be rinsed off by the water. John stood in the shower and enjoyed the water falling onto his face for a few moments longer and decided he should get out. Once out and wrapped in a towel, John brushed his teeth and inspected his face in the mirror. He had a bit of stubble but decided not to shave as he was only going to the pharmacy down the road that day.

John went to his room and dressed quickly. On his was to the living room he threw the wet towel into the dirt laundry by the entrance of the bathroom and put his keys and wallet in his pocket. John remembered that he had put the kettle on for a cuppa and pouted. He decided it would be best to go and get the medicine first. John walked quickly down the stairs and put on his jacket and left.

It was a surprisingly sunny morning for January in London so John was relieved that it wasn't as cold as usual. Luckily there was a pharmacy at the end of the street so the walk wasn't too long. He entered the small pharmacy and went straight to the 'Cold and Flu' section. After a while of browsing through the medications he was overly familiar with he bought vapour rub and cold and flu night and day tablets. As he was making his way back home John popped into a shop and bought a packet of green tea, whenever he had a cold green tea would make him feel better.

John got arrived at his door quickly and hung up his jacket and jogged up the stairs. He stepped into 221b and called out, "I'm back Sherlock!"

John listened out as he made his way to the kitchen and heard a very faint whine. John put the kettle on and prepared a mug of regular tea for himself and a mug of green tea for Sherlock. The kettle boiled and John added sugar and milk to his mug and added honey to Sherlock's. John put the mugs on a tray and rummaged through the cupboards. Eventually, after he had gotten past some of Sherlock's experiments, he found an unopened packet of chocolate digestives and put it on the tray along with the teas and medications.

John walked slowly with the tray to Sherlock's room. He tried to concentrate in order to not spill the tea but there were some drops of tea on the tray by the time he entered Sherlock's room. Sherlock looked at John with his puffy eyes but behind the illness John could see happiness and relief. "Come on, prop yourself up Sherlock," requested John kindly.

Sherlock tiredly lifted himself to a sitting position. John sat on the edge of the bed and placed the tray in between them. "I got you some green tea," said John, feeling rather self conscious about the gesture, "my mum used to make it for me when I was sick and it always used to make me feel better."

Sherlock smiled weakly and said, "Thank you, John," with a raspy voice.

John handed Sherlock his tea and gave him a tablet form the box of medication. Sherlock popped the pill in his mouth and washed it down with a mouthful of tea.

Sherlock sighed in relief as the green tea soothed his throat. John smiled and sipped on his own tea. "I know you're not going to want to but you need to eat something, okay Sherlock?" asked John, even though if Sherlock refused he would make him eat anyway.

Sherlock looked at John grumpily but did not object. John opened the packet of digestives while saying, "At least they're the chocolate ones and not the boring, plain ones," with a smile.

Sherlock smiled in return. John motioned for Sherlock to take a biscuit but Sherlock merely opened his mouth for John to feed him. "You're not seriously going to make me baby you, are you?" asked John, exasperatedly.

"I'm ill, John," reminded Sherlock.

John furrowed his brow but moved closer to Sherlock and held the biscuit to Sherlock's mouth and sipped on his tea while Sherlock bit into it and with his second bite finished it off. John broke his into quarters on the tray and ate a segment.

They continued like this until Sherlock refused to eat anymore, which wasn't long. Sherlock and john finished their tea in a comfortable and familiar silence. Sherlock slid back into a lying down position and John took Sherlock's empty mug from his hands and placed it on the tray, along with his own. John put his hand on Sherlock's forehead once again to check his temperature and saw that it was just as bad, if not worse than before. John frowned and ran his hand through Sherlock's bouncy curls. Sherlock closed his eyes and enjoyed John's cold hands on him, they were a relief from his hot surroundings.

John noticed that Sherlock's lips were chapping from breathing through his mouth and said, "Sher, do you want me to get you something for your lips?"

Sherlock looked relieved and John noticed the corners of his lips curl into a smile as he nodded. John went into his bedroom and looked through his bedside table, after a while of rummaging he found a chapstick that he uses on particularly cold days. John made his way back to Sherlock's room and found his place at the edge of Sherlock's bed again and handed him the chapstick.

Sherlock whined a, "Thank you," and put the chapstick on liberally and placed it on his bedside table when he was done.

John sighed, "I really do hate seeing you like this you know," commented John earnestly.

Sherlock smiled and said, "Thank you for looking after me like this, John," Sherlock curled up into his blankets to cover his upper half and continued, "but you don't have to if you don't want to."

John smiled broadly and said, "It's my job to help people," John blushed and added, "especially people I care about."

Sherlock smirked and cheekily asked, "Does this mean I pay you by the hour?"

John chuckled and responded, "Yeah, but you get the friends and family discount."

Sherlock gave a pathetic but sincere chuckle. Sherlock sniffed in again and rubbed his itchy nose. John could see Sherlock was getting frustrated with not being able to function normally. John picked up the vapour rub which he had left on the tray and held it up, "Why don't you put this on?" suggested John.

Sherlock felt so exhausted of his muscles throbbing that he shook his head slowly and responded, "I'm not in a state to do much moving."

Watson rubbed his eyes with his free hand and couldn't believe that he was about to say, "Shall I do it then?" but he did.

Sherlock looked up at John in surprise. John never resisted physical contact but he never initiated it. Sherlock tried to hide the smile that crept upon his face, and did so rather successfully. "Yes, thank you, John," Sherlock replied whilst sitting up.

John paused for Sherlock to take his own pyjama top off. When he didn't John thought it wouldn't be weird since he would be rubbing Sherlock's bare chest anyway, so he took Sherlock's top off himself. Sherlock's chest was firm and sculptured, as though it were made or soft marble. John admired Sherlock's body for a moment and then blushed when he realised Sherlock was watching him. Sherlock was blushing under John's gaze also. John nervously cleared his throat and opened the tub of vapour rub. John shuffled closer to Sherlock and scooped up some gel with his hand and placed the tub on Sherlock's bedside table. John put his clean hand on Sherlock's upper back. The heat that Sherlock was giving off was intense. John began to rub Sherlock's chest with the hand that held the gel and made sure he was applying an even layer across Sherlock's broad chest while selfishly feeling the curves and dips of the other mans chest. As he was doing so, the hand on Sherlock's back slid down to Sherlock's waist, as this happened Sherlock moaned softly.

John and Sherlock looked at each other awkwardly for a moment and blushed while looking away. John wasn't entirely sure what was happening but he was entirely comfortable with it and, if he were really honest with himself, he would even say he was enjoying it. Through the haze of the illness and medication Sherlock would definitely admit here were enjoying it.

"Okay," said John while straightening up, "You might not want to put your top back on… In case it gets sticky," he explained while getting up, "I'm going to go wash my hands."

John left and Sherlock lay back down on his back. Sherlock reminisced about John's cool hand gliding across his back and, before he knew it, John was back. John had a damp cloth in his hand and sat down next to Sherlock, closer than he normally would. "You felt really hot when I touched you so I brought this to cool you down," explained John.

Sherlock snorted at the unintentional innuendo and said, "Thank you, John."  
John cheeks flushed scarlet as he realised what he had said. He scrunched his face in embarrassment but started to dab Sherlock's forehead with the cool wet cloth. "That's such a relief," moaned Sherlock contently.

John moved down the side of Sherlock's face and onto his neck. Sherlock moved his head to one side so John could cover more area. John caught himself admiring Sherlock's neck and chest again but this time he did not care. In the moment he just decided to accept it. Sherlock was sighing soft ah's as John cooled down his skin. John moved down to Sherlock's shoulders and moved onto the next side. Once John had finished Sherlock looked up at John and, with a bit more life in him, said, "Thank you John, I feel quite a bit better now."  
John smiled and said, "Anything to make you feel better," with a kind smile. Sherlock put his hand on John's knee and closed his eyes. Both men remained as they were for a while until John realised Sherlock had nodded off when he heard his soft snores. John admired Sherlock's angular face while he slept. John took Sherlock's hand in his own and pushed Sherlock's hair out of his face with his other.

John picked Sherlock's hand up and brought it to his lips. He kissed Sherlock's knuckles and fingers softly. John looked at Sherlock's face and saw Sherlock's eyes flutter awake. John tried to put Sherlock's hand down in time but he knew Sherlock had caught him. John's face lit up with a red glow. Sherlock knew exactly what John was doing. Sherlock and John still held each others hand and Sherlock pulled John's hands up to his lips and kissed them as John did to him. John drew a long intake of breath as he enjoyed Sherlock's lips. Sherlock moved John's hands from his lips and held John's hand contently. Neither of the men knew what to say. John barely knew what to think at this point. All he knew was that he was very happy at this moment in time and he wasn't going to spoil.

John's mobile began to ring. With his free hand he answered it. Lestrade was asking of they could come check out a case. "No, Sherlock's ill… No, he can't even get out of bed… Doctors orders… Okay bye Lestrade," ended John.

Sherlock looked at John with sadness in his eyes; he hated not being able to go on cases. "You won't go alone will you, John," asked Sherlock while squeezing John's hand.

"How could I leave you Sherlock?" asked John, John kissed Sherlock's forehead and continued, "I need to look after you."


End file.
